Wednesday, August 1, 2007

A Little Stroll in the (Dry) Park

I took a guided walk in Mission Trails Park a few weekends ago (along with a woman who was remarkably intrepid about picking up scat [that's poo to you and me] and investigating what the animal had recently eaten) . . . It's quite a large park with lots of trails and activities and an extremely nice Visitor's Center.This is a majestic California live oak, which provided some very welcome shade on a hot morning. The trail led down to the San Diego River--I know, I know, this doesn't look much like a river, but hey . . . Right by this spot are rocks with well-worn indentations in them from Native American women (in this case, the Kumeyaay) grinding acorns, etc., in them. Cool!As you can see, conditions are very dry in the park--these dried flowers are actually quite lovely, but oh so dangerous in terms of fire. Just today, there was a 60-acre fire in this park.